Pelosi ally George Miller to end 40-year career

Bay Area Rep. George Miller, a top ally of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and author of landmark legislation on the environment, health care and labor issues, announced Monday that he will retire after a 40-year career in Congress.

Miller, 68, said he arrived at his decision upon reaching his four-decade mark.

The Richmond native and Contra Costa County Democrat joined the House in 1974 with a wave of idealistic young Democrats elected after President Richard Nixon’s resignation in the Watergate scandal and as the Vietnam War was ending.

Rated one of the most liberal members of Congress, Miller focused on environmental issues and, later, education and labor. He cast himself as a champion of the working class and poor, pushing issues ranging from school lunches to low wages at Walmart.

Miller said he ran for Congress 40 years ago to end the Vietnam War and pass universal health care. So when the the Affordable Care Act was enacted, “that was mission accomplished for me,” Miller said Monday in announcing his retirement at his Richmond district office.
Now, in a nod to the gridlock in Washington, Miller said that “there are venues outside of Congress that are more exciting to me.” He singled out education reform as an area in which he’s particularly interested.
When he realized only 50 people out of the more 10,000 who had spent time in Congress had served longer than he has, Miller said, he realized it was “time to come home. I didn’t want to just be there to be there. I don’t want to play on the taxi squad.”
Competition for the rare open seat in Congress will be intense. State Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, has already declared his intention to run, and several others are likely to jump in.

Miller said he was unsure if he would endorse anyone. “There’s a lot of talent out there,” he said.

His retirement from Congress will leave California and Pelosi, D-San Francisco, without one of their most effective and outspoken members. He was considered Pelosi’s closest confidante.

It will take “years for whoever follows George to get up to speed,” said Greg Ferre, CEO of the Contra Costa Building and Trades association.

Miller is known for his passionate debating style on the House floor and his chairmanship of two major committees, including Natural Resources, which he chaired from 1991 to 1994. From that post, Miller pushed through the California Desert Protection Act, expanding the Death Valley and Joshua Tree national parks and creating a new Mojave National Preserve.

Miller is now the top Democrat on the Education and the Workforce Committee, where as chairman from 2007 to 2011 he was a principal architect of the Affordable Care Act.

He also chaired the Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families.

This year Miller is the lead sponsor of a bill to raise the minimum wage. He is also leading House Democratic opposition to renewal of “fast track” authority to the president to negotiate free-trade deals, saying past agreements have enabled U.S. manufacturers to ship jobs overseas and put downward pressure on wages.

Miller worked closely with former President George W. Bush to write the No Child Left Behind Act. Bush nicknamed Miller “Big George,” but Miller became disillusioned after the Bush administration failed to fund the law as he had hoped. Miller was an early backer of President Obama in 2008.

Pelosi called Miller “a model of the serious, substantive and successful legislator,” and said he has been “a close friend since my first days in the House.”

“For me, as speaker and Democratic leader, George’s patriotism, wisdom and guidance have been especially valued,” Pelosi said, “My sadness at his departure from Congress in 2015 is mitigated only by my certainty that he will utilize his exemplary knowledge and skills in a new venue where he will surely again be a successful leader for our state and our nation.”

Miller entered politics in 1969, losing a special election to fill the state Senate seat that was left open when his father, George Miller Jr., died.

Miller then got his law degree at UC Davis while serving as legislative assistant to state Sen. Majority Leader George Moscone and was elected to Congress in 1974 at age 29. He has been repeatedly re-elected by huge margins.

President Obama issued the following statement:

“George Miller has proudly represented the people of California in Congress for nearly 40 years, and he has spent his career fighting to grow and strengthen the middle class. Because of his tireless efforts, our air and water are cleaner, our workers’ rights are better protected, more young people can afford to go to college, and more working families can make ends meet. George was a chief author of the first bill I signed into law, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. His decades-long fight to bring quality, affordable health insurance to millions of Americans made him an indispensable partner in developing and passing the Affordable Care Act. And he continues to fight for our shared belief that a minimum wage should be a wage you can live on. Michelle and I thank Congressman Miller for his service and leadership, and we wish him, his wife Cynthia, and their children and grandchildren the very best in the future.”